Drug haul trucker escapes jail

A Kildare trucker whose business failed when it lost a lucrative contract with the Irish Times has been given a suspended sentence for transporting almost €250,000 of drugs.

The Garda National Drug Unit stopped a van driven by Con Birchall (aged 34) and discovered the cannabis herb cache in boxes in the back.

Birchall, a father-of-three of Hartwell Green, Kill immediately told gardaí: “I’m going to Sligo for a delivery, as far as I know it’s weed”.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing 22.3kg of cannabis herb worth a total €248, 714 on the N4 after the Celbridge turn-off on August 1, 2009. He has no previous convictions.

Detective Garda Daragh Daly told Ms Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that he and other members of the Garda National Drug Unit followed Birchall’s van out of Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole and pulled him over on the N4.

Birchall revealed in interview that he had a €140,000 debt owed to banks and debt collectors and that he was to receive €2,500 for the courier job.

Det Gda Daly agreed with Ms Caroline Biggs SC, defending with Mr Kerida Naidoo BL, that her client co-operated immediately with the drugs squad, that he said he was afraid of the people who owned the drugs, that he had no drugs problem and that he had worked all his life.

Ms Biggs submitted to Judge Desmond Hogan that her client, trading under Birchall Transport Ltd, took over the family business which employed 30 people in 1991 and had 30 trucks on the road during its “heyday”.

She said the company got a number of lucrative contracts, including one with the Irish Times in 2002, but ended up taking on bad debts as some of its customers went into liquidation and others failed to renew their contracts.

Birchall had bought a house with a €270,000 mortgage before these contracts fell through.

Ms Biggs submitted that her client currently owes banks over €100,000 for truck loans. She said some of the people he owed money to were “unsavoury characters” including the person who got him to do the drugs transporting job.

Counsel handed in a letter from Birchall’s wife who said she did not agree what with he did but that he did it for his family and to save their home.

Ms Biggs said her client is now earning money again through truck driving and has an agreement with the bank to repay his loans.

Judge Hogan noted the mandatory minimum penalty for the offence is 10 years but said Birchall’s “extraordinary” circumstances allowed him to impose a suspended sentence. He sentenced Birchall to seven years suspended in full for seven years.

He also ordered that he do 240 hours community service if he is deemed suitable by the probation service.